Soft Landing

Look what's coming my way via mail:

Excuse the poor quality of the photo as it was taken with a cell phone.  Four of these cushions were made for our patio chairs.  I can't wait to see how it looks!

Master Bath Reno- FINALLY Completed

I'm happy to report that our master bathroom's shower handle is working and we are now getting hot water...yay!  I can finally label this project as "complete".

The Living Room

Although I'm still reeling about our master bathroom's lack of hot water and defective shower handle, I though I'd try to distract myself and share our living room. 

Before I share what our living room now looks like, here is the "before" version:

After knocking down the mirrors, ripping up the carpets and painting the entire room, here's what the living room now looks like:

We still have a long way to go but I think it's a big improvement. (Please ignore the side table and lamp as that is just its temporary housing space).  The couch is from Ikea and the rug is Pottery Barn's Moorish Tile Rug which I scored off ebay as PB no longer carries it.  In hindsight, I wished I had bought a cream colored rug so to create a greater distinction between the floors, rug and couch but I can always replace it later.  The most challenging decor decision was the art over the couch.  I have a bunch of eclectic pieces of art that I've picked up as hand me downs and have been given to me as gifts so I finally decided to create a gallery wall with all of them.  I wasn't sure if I loved it after the last piece was hung but it's grown on me. 

I think what the room needs know is some touches of white or creme. I plan on getting new curtains and replacing the coffee table.  We also need some side tables and lamps.   If you have any other suggestions, I'm open to hearing them!

Master Bath Reno- NOT Completed (Day 19)

Yesterday I posted pics of our finished master bathroom.  However, in order for a bathroom to be finished, the shower has to work...RIGHT?

We had resisted using the bathroom to give the marble floors a chance to dry after they were sealed so last night was the first time I went to use the shower.  I quickly discovered that the handle would only turn a quarter of the way and only cold water was coming out.  Grrr.....  Needless to say, the contractor is coming back out to take a look at it.

Master Bath Reno- Completed

It took a little more than two weeks but our master bathroom is finally finished.  I know that two weeks isn't that long in the world of home improvement but with so many people coming in and out of the house, keeping bathroom supplies in our living room, having to walk on the carpet protectors with special designated shoes and going to sleep with fumes wafting from the bathroom, the past two weeks seemed to drag on and on.

Luckily, it was well worth it.  Before I show the final product, here's another "before" pic of the bathroom:

Now, here are the "after" pics:

I originally wanted to paint a cool blue color on the walls to match the master bedroom.  I had originally chosen Benjamin Moore's Marilyns Dress as the paint but once I painted it on the wall, it looked more lavender.  After posting my paint dilemma on Decor Pad, I decided to go with Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray.  It's definitely more gray than blue but I think it compliments the room much better.

The powder room is also coming along.  On Day 16 of our Master Bath Reno, a new vanity counter top was installed in the powder room and we had it painted.  It's near completion so I'll post pictures of it soon! 

The Doors

Nothing we wanted to update in our house came easy.  The same went for the doors which were hollow slabs.  To get an idea of what I'm talking about, here's a shot of what they looked like.

We weren't a big fan of these and there were 13 of them in our house!  We measured two of the doors on the first floor and initially thought that they were standard size so we made our way down to Home Depot and bought some paneled doors to replace them.

We should have known better.

We learned after spending close to an hour trying to hang one of the new doors that they were too wide by an eighth of an inch.  So now it wouldn't be a matter of just buying and hanging new doors but we were going to have to find a way to shave them down.  The quotes we got from contractors were astronomical so we considered painting the old doors for the time being.  I even read articles of how some crafty homeowners add molding to imitate the look of panels.  Unfortunately we're not that great with woodworking so we were going to stick to painting until my dad mentioned he would be able to narrow down  the new doors with a router.  We took him up on his offer and he was able to work some magic.  Here's what the new doors now look like:

I think they look so much fresher than the older ones.  Now that we have two doors down, we only have eleven more of the old ones to fix up....

Creating the Dining Room

When we moved into our house, the only eating area was in the kitchen as there was no dining room.  We thought it would be nice to have a more formal dining area for holidays or dinner parties (not that we typically have dinner parties but we like having the option).  The only space to create this would be in the living area.

To go about setting the dining area, we moved a table in (duh) and to add some definition, installed a chandelier.  Finding chairs was a harder challenge- not that chairs are difficult to find but trying to decide on what type of chairs would work best.  I settled on Ikea's Henriksdal Chair.

 source

The dining room table seats only six but when we tried to put six chairs around it, it looked too crowded.  So instead we decided to use an ottoman/bench on one side of the table.  This was an instant solution since it made the table look less crowded and also opened up some room between where the dining room ended and the living room began.

Finding an ottoman to match the chairs was a bit of a challenge but I decided on Lands' End Country Lux Upholstered Storage Ottoman:

source

I actually picked this up at Sears of all places after seeing Freckles Chick's chairs.  I was a little worried that the ottoman's would be more white and not match the chairs as well but surprisingly they are a pretty close match.  Here's a pic of the finished product:

The kitchen table was  my parents which I painted a dark brown and the mirror is from Home Goods.  I still need some table decor but I added some candle stick holders which I picked up from a used furniture store.  The shorter candle stick holders are also from Home Goods.  Here's a close up of the ottoman and chairs:

To get an idea of what it looked like before, here's a pic:

And one more time, here's the after:

Much better, don't you think?